The subject matter disclosed within relates generally to a device in a control system, and more particularly to an intelligent power tap with zone control and safety zone control.
Control systems are at the core of modern manufacturing. These systems control diverse processes from steel and automotive products to mass distribution products associated with food and beverages, for example. In general, control systems require a processor and related program to direct a related system of Input/Output (I/O) interfaces (e.g., I/O modules) which in turn report and control industrial processes. I/O modules may be selected to perform digital style (e.g., 120V input/output) and/or analog style control (e.g., 4-20 ma input/output), for example. Also, generally associated with control systems are related racks, power supplies and control networks for housing, powering, and communicating with the associated I/O modules.
Over time, industrial system demands have steadily increased. For example, system demands for lower costs and increased flexibility are increasingly necessary for modern factories to compete on the global stage. Lower system costs provide manufacturers with a competitive advantage by realizing a better return on capital investments. Flexibility enables a manufacturer to respond to changing market dynamics as product and sales requirements change. Unfortunately, conventional systems many times are burdensome to install/upgrade and often require manufacturer's to install more system components than necessary. Thus, conventional systems generally do not provide the requisite flexibility and associated lower costs required by modern systems.
One of the solutions that addresses the above increased demands is the emergence of industrial control networks for communicating control and status data between industrial controllers and devices used in control systems such as I/O devices, motor starters, relays, push buttons, drives, etc. These industrial control networks have provided the ability to improve flexibility, increase diagnostics, reduce installation and wiring cost, ease maintainability and generally improve the productivity of manufacturing operations.
These same motivations are also driving the implementation of industrial safety networks. These safety networks allow manufacturers to distribute and intermingle standard and safety devices around their machinery using a single network cable, reducing installation costs while improving diagnostics and enabling safety systems of increased complexity. They also enable safe communications between Safety PLCs/controllers, allowing users to distribute their safety control among several intelligent systems.
However, in current networked industrial control systems and in current safety networked control systems, technical challenges exist when trying to efficiently control or shutoff multiple devices in a zone. In current systems, remote zone control or safety zone control is not supported.
Thus, there is a need for providing an intelligent power tap with remote zone control and safety zone control.